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  • Cold Comfort Farm Bill

    Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) will introduce a farm bill today that he describes as "good for family farmers and the environment and rural communities." Harkin, who is chair of the Senate Agricultural Committee, is generally well-liked by environmentalists, but not all of them agree with his assessment of the bill. Ken Cook of the Environmental […]

  • Level-heads Prevail

    The government of Kenya plans to level more than 170,000 acres of forest, much to the dismay of environmentalists, who say the logging is politically motivated and would be an ecological disaster. Although green organizations have gathered signatures and initiated legal actions, the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources is forging ahead with the plan, […]

  • Environmental news has been hard to find since Sept. 11

    I was lounging at my local coffee shop, wondering how the barista got that giant nose ring out each night, when Flym Wyntrobski barged through the door, all flapping elbows and gangly legs. He plopped down in a chair at my table, pulled something crunchy from his unkempt beard, examined it, and popped it in […]

  • Not OK Corral

    The Earth Liberation Front has claimed responsibility for the Oct. 15 firebombing of a corral owned by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management near the California-Nevada border. The bomb started a blaze that caused $85,000 of damage to the Litchfield horse facility, 80 miles north of Reno. No one was injured in the fire, and […]

  • Crystal Mess

    Here’s a troubling source of toxins that hasn’t made it onto the average environmentalist’s radar screen: methamphetamine labs. For every pound of the illegal stimulant produced, six pounds of toxic waste are left behind. Not surprisingly, there’s no environmental oversight for meth labs, so the toxic waste is often dumped into rivers or directly onto […]

  • Green Gobblin'

    The environment has been a defining issue in New Jersey’s gubernatorial race, where Democrat James McGreevey and Republican Bret Schundler are vying to lead the nation’s most densely populated state. McGreevey, who says eight years of Republican control by former governor and current U.S. EPA head Christie Whitman were bad for the state’s environment, is […]

  • Bad News, Bears

    The controversial proposal now before the Senate to drill for oil in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge could violate an international agreement signed by the U.S. in 1973 to protect polar bears and their habitats. An internal report obtained by the Washington Post shows that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service concluded in 1995 that […]

  • Appease in a Pod

    In a compromise meant to appease both industry and environmentalists, New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark today banned all commercial uses of genetically modified organisms for the next two years, while allowing GMO field tests to begin. Test plantings of such crops as peas and petunias could be start within the next year; the government […]

  • Sigh. Gone

    Vietnam is just a formality away from building a new highway that will cut through the nation’s oldest national park. Environmentalists say the controversial Ho Chi Minh Highway, which would link Hanoi in the north with Ho Chi Minh City in the south, poses a serious threat to rare and endangered species in Cuc Phuong […]

  • Built Ford Tough

    William Clay Ford, Jr., is taking over as CEO of his great-granddaddy’s company, following the resignation today of Jacques Nasser. The changing of the guard at the Ford Motor Company could mean that environmentalists will gain an even more powerful ally in traditionally enemy territory; the younger Ford has a reputation for being unusually eco-friendly […]